


Power Trip

by swiftishere



Series: MSA AU Bin [2]
Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Gen, Hero Team Vivi/Lewis/Mystery, Villain!Arthur, superhero bureaucracy, they fight each other do i need to tag that, warning for non-graphic breaking bones at the end of chapter 2
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:22:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26695219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swiftishere/pseuds/swiftishere
Summary: Lewis and Vivi are a duo of superheroes that specialize in damage control, staving off natural disasters and protecting those in the way of a villain's path.This new assignment differs wildly from their usual fare, but then, it differs from a lot of things. It seems their organization is getting a little desperate when it comes to this particular villain.
Relationships: Lewis & Mystery & Vivi (Mystery Skulls Animated)
Series: MSA AU Bin [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1942603
Comments: 14
Kudos: 74





	1. Chapter 1

“Your target,” said the director, sliding a file across the table to them, “has no official name, but we’ve taken to calling him the Wraith. Ordinarily I wouldn’t ask this of you - I know one-on-one combat isn’t technically your team’s wheelhouse - but. Well, you might be the best people for the job.”

Vivi leaned on Lewis’s shoulder to look over the file with him. It was mostly technical nonsense she couldn’t decipher at a glance, but she got the gist of the incident logs just fine. “What do you want us to do?”

“The Wraith is exceptionally powerful and incredibly dangerous. He also seems to be solely intent on doing as much damage to us as possible. Everything he’s targeted has been something we’re actively using. So far the locations he’s targeted have been remote and there’ve been no civilian deaths, but it’s only a matter of time. We’ve already nearly lost a few other heroes.”

“So what makes him so dangerous?” Lewis put down the file. “And, uh, why are we the best equipped to handle this?” He hadn’t heard much, but he already knew he wanted nothing to do with anything like this.

That actually solicited a laugh from the overseer. “Where to start? The Wraith has telekinesis, he can fly, can _teleport_ , and he’s got some sort of kinetic control over this… black mist. He can compel it to solidify and evaporate as he wishes and can cause _massive_ damage with it. The real kicker- from what we’ve seen, every hit he takes only makes those powers stronger. We think he must have some sort of healing factor, too. He’s taken hits that would be lethal to any person and was back in a few days.” The overseer tapped his pen on the desk. “Put simply, none of our regular heroes can keep up with him. We… did actually have one death. You heard about that accident the Breaker was in?”

“Yep.” Lewis shuddered. He’d seen the photo the news got. “Was- that wasn’t an accident?”

He just nodded. “That entire thing was his doing. He brought down that whole facility, and killed one of our best heroes, in under an hour.”

“Again,” this time it was Vivi who asked the question, “how exactly are we going to help here?”

“Your team specializes in damage control. Given the… _unique_ problem posed here, you may be more effective than someone trying to face him head-on.”

Vivi was starting to pick up on his plan. “We bait him into a trap. Don’t strike unless we can guarantee a capture.”

“ _Precisely_.”

“And then we- what,” Lewis interjected, “bring him back here? Isn’t that _also_ dangerous?”

“We’ll have a team ready to properly restrain him.”

Vivi looked up and down between him and the folder a few times.

“So how much, exactly, are you gonna pay us for this?” she asked finally.

_“Vivi!”_

The overseer just laughed again. “No, no, it’s a fair question. We’re asking a lot of you, I know. I promise you’ll be amply rewarded for your services. And you’ll get a high-level threat off the board, saving who knows how many lives.”

Lewis sighed, and he and Vivi exchanged a look.

“I’m up for it if you are,” Vivi said with a shrug.

After a while longer, Lewis nodded back. “I guess we’re in.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The trio chase down the Wraith. (He comes to them, really.)

"Well, _somebody_ 's up late. Are we looking for someone?" 

The sudden voice made both Vivi and Lewis whip around. Its source was, evidently, someone perched on top of the roof of the warehouse, crouched with their arms resting on their knees. The only features they could make out from this distance were glowing green dots around where the stranger's head should be. 

"Wraith," Vivi spat. "I think _you_ came looking for _us_." 

A laugh echoed through the deserted streets, bouncing off the surrounding walls. "Well, I knew they'd send _someone_ out here." He leaned forward, putting one hand down on the rooftop. "Tell you what. Leave now, and we don't have to fight. I'll let you go freely." 

"Like we'd ever let you off," Vivi snarled, drawing her sword. "Come down here and _fight us!"_

There were no more quips. The Wraith stood to his full height, and they could both clearly see him shrug before he dove off the roof, going into freefall towards the concrete. 

Vivi heard a sound to her left, and looked up to see... something like a hole in space. Dark and suspended in midair. 

- _can teleport_ , she vaguely remembered the overseer saying, and then something smashed into her side and she was suddenly weightless. 

The impact knocked the wind out of her for a good few seconds. Looking back upside-down, she watched the Wraith, crouched on the ground in front of her, shake the impact out of his arms. 

Lewis, still on his feet, watched the scene play out as he tried to remember Vivi's plan. This wasn't part of it, but maybe he could still salvage something. 

"You should _really stand still_ ," he started, letting his power creep into his voice. " _You're just going to wear yourself out_." 

The Wraith looked up. There was a beat. 

A sickle-cut smile crept across his face. 

And then he started to laugh. As he stood up again, the dark air seemed to... coalesce around him. "Holy fuck, don't tell me _that's_ your power? Are you fucking _serious_ right now?" Something with the vague shape and look of tar seemed to loop around his shoulders now. He held up one hand and then it was _moving_. "Man, they _are_ getting desperate." 

Lewis added _immune to charming_ to his running mental list of things the Wraith could do, and then had to very quickly duck back as the rope of tar cut uncomfortably close to his face. 

Vivi couldn't seem to move. At first she'd just been pausing and trying to breathe, but now- it was like she was _stuck_ to the ground. This _had_ to be more of the Wraith's doing - maybe telekinesis, or some of that "mist" the overseer had mentioned. 

Well, just because she couldn't move, that didn't mean she was weaponless. She splayed her fingers and dug them into the ground, and focused on calling forth an ally. 

Lewis and the Wraith both paused their combat dance to watch as something shimmered into existence. A red-and-white _massive_ fox made of light- 

Lewis recognized Vivi's handiwork before the Wraith knew what was going on, and decided to use the opportunity to summon forth a few of his own spirits. The deadbeat, little more than fire catching from the air, sparked into existence much quicker than Mystery could, and three or four were darting forth in an instant. Their main goal was to distract and confuse, of course, but _the Wraith_ didn't know that. The three got his attention away from the manifesting fox, swirling around his head, cutting close but never quite actually touching him. 

And then Mystery's seven tails swished out behind him, and he was properly joining the fight. 

The Wraith was doing his best to duck away from the sudden wisps, but couldn't manage to do anything. After almost being backed up to a wall, he finally gave a huff of annoyance, and suddenly raised his fist up to his chest. A ring of ichor manifested around his head, quickly widening and forcing the deadbeats back. 

Vivi noticed she could move her limbs again, and elected not to waste the opportunity. She rolled to her feet, picking her sword back up on her way, and needed only a moment to take stock of the scene. 

The deadbeats were keeping more of a distance now, wary of the droplets of ichor that seemed to hang in the air, reflecting green light back from their pink glow. Lewis called them back - they'd done their job, and keeping them around now would only wear him out faster. 

The now-trio didn't even need to look at each other to silently agree on a course of action. Vivi swung her sword subtly to the side, a motion Lewis caught out of the corner of his eye, and then all three of them charged at once. The Wraith's eyes visibly flickered between the three, and then his hand balled into a fist again and he elected to point the bolt of ichor towards Mystery. The fox stumbled and stopped, a thin coat of the stuff seeming to trap his front legs, but the other two kept moving undissuaded. Another moment and both of them had taken one of the Wraith's arms to pin to the wall. 

"Got 'im," Lewis muttered, and Vivi gave a short nod. He reached over to grab the other arm just as she released it, and then he had the Wraith swiveled around with both hands pinned behind his back. 

Vivi had her comms unit out when Lewis experienced the curious sensation of there abruptly not being enough ground for his feet anymore. He was falling backwards before he knew it, hands slipping off the Wraith's in his startled panic. Vivi noticed and tried to make a lunge for him, but her hand met only air and then he was consumed into the dark portal that had opened up in the ground. 

Lewis was expecting to fall much farther than he did before his feet hit something solid. Looking down, he realized he'd landed on the ledge near the roof of the building - the only window it had, he realized. He did his best not to look at the very long drop just below him, instead looking slightly more ahead to the continuing fight. 

They were hard to make out from here, but he could tell that Vivi, Mystery and the Wraith were all slowly circling each other. Occasionally one of his allies would step forward, and the Wraith would step back almost in unison, but for the most part the other two were focused on not falling into the same trap as Lewis. _~~Talk about embarrassing. He was racking his brains, but none of his powers were particularly useful in getting down from here.~~_

Vivi was, indeed, mostly focused on keeping her feet moving and her eyes on the Wraith. He was obviously feeling trapped, gaze darting between her and Mystery as quickly as it could. He quietly traced his teeth with his tongue, thinking- and then that same sliced smile appeared on his face and he turned back to Vivi, pausing his steps for a moment. 

"That's an animal." 

"What?" Vivi stopped as well. 

And then a bolt of black ichor slammed into her chest and she was knocked to the ground _again_. 

Mystery- well. Mystery acted as you might expect a well trained hero's dog to, when he sees his owner getting hurt, and retaliated. 

He yipped, and then a wave of force crashed into the Wraith. Unlike before, he had quite a ways to go before he hit a wall, and when he finally did he dropped to the ground instead of landing on his feet. 

_Ha!_ Lewis thought, watching the fight. _Bet you weren't expecting him to be able to oh shit, that's a **lot** of hurt. _

The remains of the ichor finally dripped off of Vivi, just in time for her to start advancing on the Wraith again. He was unmoving for a long while. When he finally put his hands under him and pushed himself up, the moonlight caught something red dripping from his face to the ground. 

He seemed to sway slightly as he stood, but whether that was because he was having trouble, or just the way he was getting up, they couldn't tell. 

And then Vivi and Mystery were yanked into the air before they could react, ropes suddenly manifesting in tight coils around their limbs. Vivi was pulled into the air by her hands, and Mystery was simply bound around his entire torso. Lewis found himself wrapped in black rope and pulled down to their level as well, only a moment after watching what happened to them, finding himself bound in the same fashion as Vivi. 

While she was pretty preoccupied with how trapped she was, Vivi also couldn't help but be interested in the sudden shift in the balance of this fight. She was starting to get a picture of just how his power was affected by hits - the amount of ichor here was something he _definitely_ didn't have access to ten seconds ago. It was enough to restrain all of them more or less completely. 

They couldn't do much more than watch, then, as the Wraith slowly paced up to them, eyes slowly scanning over them with only mild interest. Like someone picking out fruit at a grocery store. 

_I am about to die,_ Lewis realized, only a moment before the Wraith's gaze landed directly on him. 

His head swayed back and forth for a moment, a not-quite-nod, vaguely reminiscent of someone mentally debating something. 

And then his hand raised up, fingers curled but not closed into a fist. In one smooth motion he brought his arm down and closed the fist, and Lewis found himself slammed into the ground knees-first. He was suddenly forced into a kneeling position- he noticed in some distant part of his mind that it felt less like the ropes, and more like his limbs themselves were moving of their own accord- and then rapidly tied to the floor so that he couldn't move much more than his head. 

He couldn't bear to look up. All he could do was listen breathlessly to the quiet tapping of shoes on concrete. 

The tapping stopped and then was replaced with another _wham_ , and finally Lewis looked up- to notice that the Wraith had done much the same thing to Mystery. 

Now he couldn't tear his eyes away. Slowly, the Wraith paced over to the final person still hung in the air. He looked up and seemed to almost nod to himself, tracing a spot on his collarbone with one hand. 

_Please, no, not her don't hurt her please-_ Lewis mentally chanted, unable to speak. 

And Vivi was forced to the ground- but not in the same position as the others. She was pushed and pulled until she was lying on her back, every limb secured to the ground. 

The Wraith paced a little closer, and with another small wave, even more ropes wound around her right arm, enough to lift it slightly off the ground. And then they _yanked_ and Vivi did something she almost never did, something that terrified Lewis every time he heard it. She _screamed_. 

The ropes dissolved so that her arm could drop to the ground, and Vivi didn't scream again but he could hear a loud, hissed exhale. And the Wraith... he turned around and tapped his foot and a dark, swirling portal opened up on the wall. 

He stepped through, and it snapped shut in an instant, leaving them all behind. 

As soon as he was gone the ichor ropes dissolved. Mystery was first on his feet, and he bolted off the second he was up - Lewis would have yelled something at him, but he couldn't remember quite how to speak. Or how to get his legs to move, for that matter. He was frozen, staring at Vivi still reeling on the ground. 

In another few moments a snout pushed its way into his field of vision, and he zeroed in with some effort on something held in Mystery's mouth. A communicator. 

_Oh!_

As soon as he had the small device in his hands he felt more stable, enough to actually get up and stumble to Vivi's side. His words came out in a rush as soon as he connected, mind trying to keep up with both the conversation he was having and taking stock of her injuries. It seemed to just be the broken arm, plus or minus some bruises he could feel forming on his own limbs too, but that didn't mean he hadn't done something _else_ to her while he was at it, something not immediately visible. 

"We need a lift or a medic- broken bones, possibly internal injuries- no, we don't have- him." _The Wraith_ was a name he couldn't quite make himself say at the moment. 

After a little while Vivi slipped onto unconsciousness. That was better, somehow, not to see her shaking and her face screwed up in pain. He was able to sit by her side until the promised lift came to drag them back to the base. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the fight, back at the main office.

"Well, I can't say I'm surprised," said the overseer, sighing, and that stung more than it should have. 

"We got _really_ close!" Vivi jumped in, putting one hand on the table. Her arm had been healed by one of the attendants in the medical bay, but she was still favoring that shoulder. "We got him restrained, we just weren't- I bet if we went back, now that we know what he can do? We could beat him." 

"I can't allow that." He shook his head. "It's too dangerous and we need you for... other assignments." 

"But-" 

"We saw his face," Lewis interjected when something occurred to him. "We could probably pick him out of- or describe him, you could look him up and we could go take him out in his civilian identity." 

But the overseer shook his head. "No can do." 

Vivi looked over at Lewis and then back at the overseer. "Sounds like a solid plan to me," she said. 

"You think you're the first ones to get a good look at him? We've scoured every database we have access to - hell, we've gotten and tested blood samples! And no matter how carefully we go over them, there just... isn't a match. It's like he just _doesn't exist_." 

"But- that... can't be right. He's got to exist _somewhere_ ," Vivi said, tapping the table. "I mean- you look at how the Wraith hasn't targeted civ centers- you can't be a villain _all_ the time. You have to, like, get groceries. And if he's not raiding places to steal them, then he's gotta do business transactions with money. Stuff that would put him on the map." 

Lewis and the overseer both nodded along. Lewis jumped in to supply, "maybe he's changing his face? A-and his... DNA, I guess?" 

"It doesn't fit with the suite we have for him. He shows no signs of being able to manipulate his own form outside of the healing factor. And I doubt he's hiding a whole extra set we've never seen before. I'm telling you, the thought is good but we've been _over_ all of this. _Several times_ , even." He shook his head. "Why do you think we call him the Wraith?" 

"A ghost," Vivi said, more softly than before. "No identity, single focus, and he won't stay dead." 

That struck more of a chord with Lewis than he'd have liked to admit. "Do you think he's _actually-_?" 

He just shrugged. "Your guess is as good as ours. Better, probably. It's the best explanation we could come up with- some sort of spirit borrowing a human body. And then the nickname just stuck. Like your partner said- he behaves like a wraith. You've seen it. Powerful and bent on destruction - nothing mortal has that kind of ability." 

Lewis stood. "Whatever he is- now we've seen what he can do, we can take him down." 

"We're still gonna-" he heard Vivi mutter almost under her breath, and then she stood as well. "Yeah. Next time, we'll be ready for whatever he's got." 

He looked between the two of them. "I'm willing to approve it, but... you're _sure_ you can do this?" 

Vivi looked to Lewis, waiting for him to answer. 

"Yeah. Don't... don't worry about it. We'll have him back here within the week." 

* * *

"Hey-" Vivi said, grabbing his arm. 

He stopped, turning to give her his full attention. 

"You don't have to do this. I know- that last fight was... bad. The three of us _combined_ couldn't keep up with him. I know this matters to you, and I want to take him down too, but..." She looked him over with a concerned frown. "If you feel like this is too dangerous... I trust your judgement, alright? I don't want us walking into anything we can't handle." 

_Again_ , Lewis mentally finished her sentence. "I- I'll keep that in mind. Thank you." He almost looked away, and then added quietly, "it... means a lot." 

"I'll do whatever I need to, but I don't want anyone else getting hurt," she called as he turned away. 

_I know._ "We- last time was... we didn't know what we were doing. And we got _close_. I think next time we'll have him." He unfolded the map with a flick of his arm. "So... where do you think he went?" 

Despite his reassurances, he could still see a lingering uncertainty in Vivi's eyes as she bent over the map next to him. 


End file.
